Maybe Tomorrow
by R2M
Summary: Ben needs more than just his mother... a beginning of a journey unlike any other that Dean Winchester has ever faced.


* * *

_Maybe Tomorrow_

"Okay, seriously, you're a hundred percent sure that he is not mine?" Dean questioned anxiously, ambivalent about what was the answer he wanted.

"You're off the hook. I did a blood test when he was a baby." Lisa replied. Seeing Dean's skeptical look, her mind searched for a story, hoping he'd be satisfied. "There was this guy -- some bar back in a biker joint."

Dean's look of skepticism deepened. She continued, adding to the story, "What? I had a type. Leather jacket, couple of scars, no mailing address? I was there. Guess I was a little wild back then." Lisa mocked herself internally. _When had she ever been wild?_ She sobered. "But yeah… I'm a mom now. So yeah, you can relax." She gave a hearty chuckle, positive she had relieved Dean's conscience a little.

"That's good… good." But Dean's face fell, and Lisa noticed.

"I…" She didn't know what to say. "I swear you look disappointed." She couldn't take back what she had said now. It was too late. What was she supposed to say? That s_he lied?_

Dean wasn't sure how to say what he needed to. "um… Yeah. I don't know. It's weird, you know your life… I mean, this house and a kid… wow… its not my life." He took a breath. "Some stuff happened to me recently, and, uh anyway, a guy in my situation—you start to think, you know? I'm gonna be gone one day, and what am I leaving behind besides a car? I don't know."

Lisa's heart just broke. How could she do this? This man was Dean. He was the best night of her life. Look at what he did. He saved people. He saved Ben. He gave her Ben. He was a good guy. What else did Ben need in a father?

But she knew what Ben needed. He needed stability. Dean couldn't give that to their, no _her_, son. She took a deep breath, "Ben may not be your kid." Her voice hitched. "but he wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for you. That's a lot if you ask me." She was telling the truth. Men like Dean, they made a difference in the world.

Dean shrugged, moving on, "You know, just for the record… you got a great kid. I would have been proud to be his dad." He turned to leave.

Lisa moved towards him. "Look, if, um… if you want to stick around for a while… you're welcome to stay."

Dean wistfully looks back at her. He needs to leave if he ever wants to get away. This life wasn't for him. He didn't deserve it. "I can't. Gotta lot of work to do. And, well, it's not my life."

He turned around to leave again, but stopped, and facing the door, said one last time, "But if anything happens, call me, Lisa. I gave you my cell and a way to contact my brother if that doesn't work. If you ever need anything, if Ben needs anything, don't hesitate to find me or Sam. I will always be there for you and him, no matter _where_ I go. It doesn't have to be supernatural. Anything. If you need the help, and I'm not here, Sam will come and he'll help. Don't hesitate to call him or me. We'll be there. I'll be there. _Always_."

* * *

"Ben?" Lisa called up from the bottom of the staircase. The smell of pancakes drifted up from the kitchen, hot and steamy; the meal was a small peace offering on her part, a way to say _I'm sorry I yelled last night_. "C'mon honey, I made breakfast."

Ben didn't answer but just came down with all his stuff. He walked to the door and slammed it on his way out to school.

And Lisa knew today would be another day she'd be eating breakfast alone. She sighed. She didn't know what to do anymore. Ben wouldn't listen to her, couldn't listen to her. He was growing into a regular angsty teen that was for sure. But it was worse than that. The fights, the acting out, the yelling, they were all signs that Ben was giving her. They were all telling her that he needed something, and _it_ was something she couldn't give him.

She couldn't be Ben's father for him. She couldn't show him all the cool things fathers showed their sons. She was doing the best she could as a single mother with a son of thirteen. She had always feared this moment when Ben would begin asking about his father. When she wouldn't be able to give him the answers he needed. When she wouldn't be enough for him.

Going back to the kitchen, she sighed. When had life become so hard? When had life just become so complicated?

But deep down, Lisa knew the answer. When they had met Dean, the whole world had changed. She expected something bad to happen every day now; what she had heard, what Ben had seen, it was enough to make any mother overprotective and a little paranoid. She knew the whole story, and now she knew what types of things were really _out there_. She needed to take care of her son. Her only son. Her everything.

While she had become more cautious, more careful, Ben had just become more reckless. He became more and more like Dean every day, wanting adventure. Wanting to be a hero. But he was _so_ young, and Lisa never ever wanted Ben to have Dean's life. In some part of her heart, she instinctively knew that Dean wouldn't have wanted that either. But she wasn't sure how to stop Ben.

What he did yesterday at school had been unspeakable. It was so stupid: cutting class to explore the newest mystery downtown. Ben was so blinded by his quest to be like Dean that he forgot about her. She couldn't bear to lose him. Never again. The missing kids worried her too, and she wanted to catch the perpetrators, she did, but she didn't want lose Ben in order to catch them. Let the police do their job. She had told Ben that when he had come home from detention.

And most days if Ben had had detention, she would tell him to stay in the house. But Lisa had felt sorry for her son, and so she had let him go to a friends' house that night to "sleepover" but Ben hadn't gone where he said he would. She had gotten a knock at her door around midnight from the _**police**_. They told her that her son had been exploring _downtown_,that it was dangerous with the yet to be captured kidnappers still loose (Like she hadn't known that. Like Ben hadn't known that). Her son had broken state curfew and had gone to that exact place she told him he couldn't! Lisa didn't know what to do anymore.

She had yelled at Ben. He had yelled back, like never before. Finally she couldn't take it anymore, and she slapped him! It hadn't been very hard; her parents had definitely whacked her harder than that before when she was a child. But it was the principle behind it: Lisa had never touched a hair on the boy, and she knew he was wild, but Ben had always listened to her before on the important things. And this was important, but he _just wouldn't listen anymore_. He had gotten so mad, stomped his way upstairs and slammed his door. Lisa didn't even have the heart to go after him.

She had made pancakes this morning and had skipped out on work, in hopes of being able to talk to him, but he left so quickly. She didn't know what to do anymore. Ben needed a father figure. A man who could tell him that hunting wasn't all fun and games. A man that could tell him there was more to life.

Ben needed Dean. She needed Dean.

That was it! Why hadn't she thought of it before? She could call Dean. She could get him. Dean would know what to do. He could help get Ben on the right track again!

Lisa had always cherished Dean's number in a metal box where she kept all her memories of that night Dean had given her Ben. That week she had spent with Dean. He wasn't someone you couldn't easily forget. She knew he would be able to help her.

She just needed to ask. He would come. She hoped.

* * *

_If there wasn't chaos in his home, Sam knew something would be wrong._

He watched as his only daughter dunked her nose and mouth in a plate of waffles filled with maple syrup while her twin brother ran around the house in nothing but a T-shirt and his underwear watching _Tom and Jerry _on their mini-tv. Across the table, his wife was trying to ignore the commotion around her as she researched the latest mishap for his brother Dean.

Taking in the chaos, Sam finally decided he should probably clothe his son, when suddenly the phone rang, and all hell broke loose. His baby girl dropped the maple syrup bottle, his son started screaming, and his wife left the room, looking as she was escaping hell and entering heaven, when she went to answer the phone. Picking up the bottle and glad it was only partially open, Sam placed it on the table. He then proceeded to pick up his two children after a small struggle and walked towards their room.

Passing by Ash, he saw her with a skeptical look on her face. Mouthing to her, 'who is it?' he saw her shake her head. Sighing, he thought to himself, why couldn't she tell the person she'd call them back. He couldn't handle these two alone!

As he set the kids respectively on their tiny beds, he heard the name "Dean Winchester". There weren't a lot of people that called Sam's apartment to find out about Dean. This definitely caught his interest. He wanted to go out there and see what the problem was, but decided his kids probably placed higher rank than his curiosity.

Making sure Blair wasn't moving/touching anything with her syrupy hands, Sam attempted to get John to put on his pants. Just when he was about to lose his head and place a strategic swat on the underwear clad bottom in front of him, Ash came in.

"We need to tell your brother he needs to get to this address as soon as possible."

"Why? Is someone in trouble? Is it supernatural?"

"I guess. The woman I was talking to was slightly hysterical. Kept babbling that Dean had promised to help her, and she needed Dead to get down there and she couldn't reach him on his cell. I didn't give her Dean's new cell number but I did take her number and told her we'd pass the message along to Dean." Ash exclaimed while trying to get a hold on Blair.

"What's her name?" Sam questioned finally having dressed John.

"Lisa. Lisa Braeden."

* * *

Next chapter will be out hopefully sometime next week. I'm glad you read. Writers love reviews.


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